The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Teachings #49
49. The light of heaven that surrounds our spiritual self. The light in the heavens is immense: 1117, 1521, 1533, 1619-1632. The light in the heavens vastly surpasses earth's noonday light: 1117, 1521, 4527, 5400, 8644. I have often seen this light: 1522, 4527, 7174. For angels in the central or third heaven the light is like the light of the sun, while for angels in the second heaven it is like the light of the moon: 1529, 1530. The light in the central heaven is flamelike, while in the second heaven it is gleaming white: 9570.
[2] All the light in the heavens comes from the Lord as the sun there: 1053, 1521, 3195, 3341, 3636, 3643, 4415, 9548, 9684, 10809. The Lord is the sun of the angelic heaven, and that sun is his divine love: 1521, 1529, 1530, 1531, 1837, 4321, 4696, 7078, 7171, 7173. The divine truth that radiates from the Lord in the heavens is seen as light; it is the source of all the light in heaven, which is why that light is a spiritual light: 3195, 3222, 5400, 8644, 9399, 9548, 9684. This is why the Word refers to the Lord as "the light": 3195. Since that light is divine truth, it contains divine wisdom and intelligence: 3195, 3485, 3636, 3643, 3993, 4302, 4413, 4415, 9548, 9684. How light from the Lord flows into the heavens, illustrated by golden haloes around the sun: 9407. The Lord is the sun for the heavens and all the light there comes from him (see Heaven and Hell 116-125); the light from that sun is divine truth and the warmth from that sun is the divine goodness that comes from divine love (Heaven and Hell 126-140).
[3] Heaven's light enlightens both the sight and the understanding of angels and spirits: 2776, 3138. The nature of the light they experience depends on their intelligence and wisdom: 1524, 3339. Evidence for this from the Word: 1529, 1530. There are as many different types of light in the heavens as there are angelic communities: 4414. Since goodness and truth come in endless varieties in the heavens, the same goes for wisdom and intelligence: 684, 690, 3241, 3744, 3745, 5598, 7236, 7833, 7836. Heaven's having light and warmth means that it has wisdom and love: 3643, 9399, 9400.
[4] Heaven's light is what enlightens our understanding: 1524, 3138, 3167, 4408, 6608, 8707, 9128, 9399, 10569. When we are lifted out of the level of our physical senses, we come into a gentler light and ultimately into heavenly light: 6312, 6315, 9407. When we come into a greater understanding, we have been lifted into heavenly light: 3190. The great light that I have perceived when I have been withdrawn from worldly ideas: 1526, 6608. Our inner self sees in heaven's light, which is why we can think analytically and rationally: 1532. Heaven's light from the Lord is always present with us; it actively flows into us to the extent that we are focused on what is true for the sake of what is good: 4060, 4214. That light is proportional to the truth we have from leading a good life: 3094. Truths shine in the spiritual world: 5219. Spiritual warmth and spiritual light give us true life: 6032.
[5] This world's light is for the outer self, and heaven's light is for the inner self: 3222, 3223, 3337. Heaven's light flows into earthly light; the wisdom of our earthly self is proportional to our acceptance of heaven's light: 4302, 4408. There is a relationship of correspondence between these two kinds of light: 3225. The things that are visible in heaven's light cannot be seen in the light we have in this world, the light we call "earthly light"; and conversely, the things that are visible in earthly light cannot be seen in heaven's light: 9577. That is why people who are in this world's light alone, the light we call "earthly light," do not perceive things that exist in heaven's light: 3108. For people who have embraced false beliefs because they love evil, heaven's light is darkness: 1783, 3337, 3413, 4060, 6907, 8197. For evil people this world's light comes to have a warm glow, and the brighter it glows, the darker the things that are in heaven's light become for them: 6907. Angels cannot see this world's light: 1521, 1783, 1880.
[6] In the heavens all the light comes from the Lord and all the shade comes from the ignorance and selfhood of angels and spirits, giving rise to the modifications and variations of light and shade that are colors there: 3341. The variations of light that shone through the Urim and Thummim: 3862.
[7] The light of people who are given to a faith separate from caring is snowy and is like winter light: 3412, 3413. That light turns into mere darkness as heaven's light flows in: 3412. The light of people whose faith is merely a self-induced conviction 1 and whose lives are given to evil: 4416. What the light is like for people whose intelligence comes from themselves and what it is like for people whose intelligence comes from the Lord: 4419.
[8] There is light in the hells, but it is deceptive: 1528, 3340, 4214, 4418, 4531. The light there is like that of glowing charcoal: 1528, 4418, 4531. People in the hells look human to themselves in their own light, but in heaven's light they look like demons and monsters: 4532, 4533, 4674, 5057, 5058, 6605, 6626. In heaven's light, everything looks like what it truly is: 4674. The reason the hells are linked to "darkness" and "thick darkness" is that false thoughts and evil intent inhere in them: 3340, 4418, 4531. "Darkness" means falsities, and "thick darkness" means falsities from evil intent: 1839, 1860, 7688, 7711.
Footnotes:
1. The Latin phrase here translated "people whose faith is merely a self-induced conviction" is qui in fide persuasiva, literally, "those in persuasive faith," and is traditionally translated in the latter manner. However, the description in New Jerusalem 117-119 makes it quite clear that this faith is one deliberately and opportunistically adopted by someone in order to appear like a true believer to others, the sole purpose being the advancement of one's own interests. Thus it is more a "self-persuaded faith" than a "persuasive faith," although it is by nature adopted in order to persuade others that one holds approved views. Many careers in eighteenth-century Europe required the appearance of religious conformity. On the materialistic corruption attaching to just one such career, that of church administration, see note 1 in New Jerusalem 117. [GFD, SS]
